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Sox fan's death raises questions on force
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-23 10:42
The death of a college student from a pepper-spray-filled projectile sparked
anger and questions Friday about whether police used too much force to break up
rowdy Red Sox revelers outside Fenway Park.
Victoria Snelgrove, an Emerson College
student, appears
in this undated family photo. Snelgrove, 21, died October 20,
2004. [AP] | The mayor said more police
will be at neighborhood bars during the upcoming World Series to make sure fans
do not get too drunk or rowdy, but he backed off his threat to ban alcohol in
the area during the games.
Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole said police are considering
discontinuing the use of the weaponry that killed Victoria Snelgrove as officers
tried to contain an estimated 80,000 fans who poured into the area after the Red
Sox victory Wednesday at Yankee Stadium in New York.
O'Toole said the officers showed "great restraint" but had to fire the
projectiles after a few revelers set small fires and threw bottles at police and
vandalized property, endangering others. Snelgrove, a 21-year-old Emerson
College student, was hit in the eye and died hours later.
The plastic balls of pepper spray, which are propelled from devices similar
to paintball guns, are meant to help police control large groups without
injuring people.
"We want to use the least force necessary in order to maintain the crowd,"
O'Toole said. "Very unfortunately, it resulted in a horrible action."
Mayor Thomas Menino decided against invoking a rarely used state law to ban
the sale of alcohol "in cases of riot or great public excitement" after meeting
with about two dozen bar and restaurant owners Friday.
Instead, the city and bar owners agreed to limit the number of people lining
up to enter Fenway-area clubs and to prevent live television coverage inside the
bars so patrons do not get rowdy as they play to the cameras.
Fifteen people, including a police officer, suffered minor injuries in the
game's aftermath, and Boston police reported eight arrests, mostly for
disorderly conduct.
Several people who were near the area where Snelgrove was shot said the crowd
seemed under control when the pepper-spray balls were fired.
Doug Conroy, 33, of Portland, Maine, said he and several other people had
climbed the rafters of Fenway's famed Green Monster when police began to order
them back down. He said he saw an officer in riot gear shoot something into the
crowd below him.
He said he heard a woman scream, then heard sobbing. "A lot of people then
looked over and saw her lying awkwardly on the sidewalk and blood coming out of
her nose. She wasn't moving and we were just hoping she was just unconscious,"
Conroy said.
He called the police action "an egregious overreaction."
"There was nothing violent going on. It was all celebration," he said.
Boston police bought the projectile weaponry for crowd control during this
summer's Democratic National Convention, but did not use it then because
protests remained relatively subdued.
Melvin L. Tucker, a security consultant who specializes in the use of force
by police, said "less-than-lethal" weaponry has become an increasingly popular
among police departments around the country over the past five years as a
replacement for tactics such as nightsticks and tear gas.
"This is generally a lot safer. It's a real tragedy," said Tucker, a former
police chief of Tallahassee, Fla., and Asheville, N.C.
Emerson College canceled classes Friday, held a counseling session and
tentatively scheduled a memorial service next week for Snelgrove, whom friends
and teachers described as a hardworking student who dreamed of becoming an
entertainment reporter.
When journalism professor Bob Klinkscale read the news to his class Thursday,
"It sounded like the air was sucked out of the room," he said.
Grief turned to anger at the offices of the Boston Herald, where readers
called and e-mailed to complain about a graphic front-page photo of a bleeding
Snelgrove lying on the ground. The newspaper issued an apology for that photo
and a smaller one inside Thursday's editions.
Snelgrove's death was the second in Boston this year during rowdy
celebrations of sports victories. Police were caught understaffed when riots
broke out after the New England Patriots' Super Bowl win Feb. 1. One person was
killed and another critically injured when a vehicle plowed into revelers.
In a Boston sports brawl last year, former New York Yankees players Jeff
Nelson and Karim Garcia are scheduled to go on trial Tuesday on charges of
assaulting a Fenway Park groundskeeper who cheered the Red Sox during the 2003
American League Championship Series. Prosecutors on Friday dropped charges
against the groundskeeper, whom Nelson had accused of bumping him and spitting
on him.
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